U.S.-PALESTINE: Hamas Leader Faces Uphill Extradition Battle

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

NEW YORK, Mar 20 1996 (IPS) - The tense situation in Israel, after a spate of bombings by the Islamist ‘Hamas’ movement, has made it all but impossible for a Palestinian leader in the United States to receive a fair extradition hearing, his supporters say.

Mousa Abu Marzook, the head of the political bureau of Hamas, has been detained by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) since he was arrested here last Jul. 25.

Although he has not been charged with any offences in the United States, Marzook remains in jail without bail. Prosecutors at a trial which began here last Friday, are seeking to have him extradited to Israel, which plans to charge him of various crimes for his association with Hamas.

A spate of suicide bombings last month in Israel, attributed to Hamas and other Islamist radical groups, left 62 people dead and prompted a wave of public condemnation of Hamas (the acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement).

Hamas is blamed with two attacks in Jerusalem and one in Ashkelon. The fourth bombing — of a Tel Aviv department store — has now been blamed on Islamic Jihad, another radical group.

Marzook had lived as a U.S. resident in the state of Virginia for 14 years prior to his arrest. His lawyer, Stanley Cohen, says the arrest reflects a political — not legal — decision to persecute Hamas for its opposition to the Middle East peace process. His continued detention without bail, Cohen adds, is part of a political campaign here to neutralise Hamas.

“I don’t think Abu Marzook stands one chance in a million of getting justice in an American court,” Cohen says.

Marzook is not being detained as a political leader of Hamas, although the Islamist group is one of 11 organisations which U.S. President Bill Clinton placed on a “terrorist” watch list in Jan. 1995. Rather, he is one of an estimated 200 people who have been detained in this country prior to extradition to another country.

Cohen, however, argues that Marzook’s case is unique, because for the first time, the United States is seeking to extradite someone not on the basis of any crime he has committed, but purely because of his association with an organisation deemed to be involved in crimes.

That linkage has led to concern, particularly among Muslim and Arab-American groups, over Marzook’s civil rights.

“We’ve always felt the case of Abu Marzook has a political component to it,” says Khalil Jahshan, president of the Washington-based National Association of Arab Americans. “We’re not too optimistic in this regard.”

Jahshan says that U.S. authorities should arrest Marzook if they have any reason to believe he has committed specific crimes. But he argues that they should not persecute him for his role in Hamas.

“If the man has committed any crimes in this country, I think we have sufficient laws on the boks to try him,” Jahshan says.

The dilemma, however, is that Marzook is not connected in the Hamas organisational structure to the Qassim Brigades, or other groups linked with terrorist activities.

Instead, Marzook has been urging Hamas to cooperate in the current political process in the West Bank and Gaza, despite the organisation’s opposition to the 1993 peace agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

Last June, he was expelled from Jordan after he urged Hamas to run in the Palestinian elections, held in January. Hamas boycotted the elections anyway, which were won readily by the PLO and its chairman, Yasir Arafat.

But Israel remains convinced that Marzook is a crucial part of the Hamas, structure and they have demanded that the United States hand him over.

After the recent bombings, which have stunned Israel and pushed the peace process near collapse, Marzook’s chances of getting a fair hearing at New York’s District Court have plummeted, Cohen says.

“The bombings poison the atmosphere and the air” for Marzook’s hearing, Cohen argues. “It doesn’t help his case one bit.”

Despite his repeated denials of connections with the bombers, Marzook has tried to play a role from his cell in calming the tensions since Hamas suicide bombers — claiming revenge for the January assassination of Hamas military leader Yahya Ayyash — broke a six-month peace.

In a statement released two weeks ago, Marzook urged “all sides” to stop the killings of civilians, and reaffirmed his support for a peace which would grant full rights to all Palestinians.

The statement, Cohen says, was “important to the degree that Marzook could join in the discourse from afar.”

But Kahshan argues that Marzook’s statement has had little effect. “I think right now, there is a serious rift between the political and military wings of Hamas,” he says.

Other Arab leaders here are wary of discussing the Marzook case for fear of appearing to defend Hamas, a group seen in the United States as beyond the pale.